Laughter is an instant vacation. - Milton Berle

Back in 1997 a movie came out that I instantly fell in love with.  Now, 15 years later, the third of the series has come out and today I got to go and see it.  My heart smiled, and I laughed, while watching The Men in Black III today.  The only thing I missed was the dog.

Also, my heart smiled even extra harder when the person I was with unexpectantly mentioned how one of the characters reminded him of the idea of time travel in Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, which happens to be one of my favourite novels.

It is strange what a contempt men have for the joys that are offered them freely. - Georges Duhamel

Today is stupid humid.  The humidity had managed to seep it's way into my work, making it really uncomfortable during my shift.  I was sweating even when I was doing nothing more than shift from one leg to another.  So when I finished work and walked into my cool air conditioned house, my heart was smiling.

Start every day with a smile and get it over with. - W.C. Fields

I got home late last night, so I wasn't able to post for yesterday even though I really wanted to.

Last night I went to Toronto to see the Toronto Symphony Orchestra's free concert where they performed Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture.  1812 Overture is the first classical piece of music I really got into back in grade nine music class.  I was quite obsessed with it, to be frankly honest, especially of a recording that I have with actual canons.  While the TSO didn't have actual canons, they did have fireworks instead.  It really made my heart smile to be able to see this song finally done in person (and they did a really awesome job!)

For anyone interested, here is a recording of 1812 Overture.  You should really listen to the whole thing for the full impact, but for those that have little patience, the canons come after 12:20 when Russia is officially kicking Napolean's ass and continues intermittently from then till the end.

As for today, I woke up exhausted and hot.  I hate humidity.  I figured whatever, put a smile one and get it over with (hence why I picked that quote for today).  I got to work, was almost done my shift (the end was in sight!) and was asked to work for four more hours.  It was one of those situations where I really didn't want to say yes, but the logical part of me knew that I need the money.  So I said yes.  And you know what made it all worth it?  A father and daughter.  Cutest little couple ever, she was six years old, incredibly shy, and her dad was so intent on buying her some dresses and skirts.  Working in retail, sometimes you can see the real ugly in people.  People who are rude, disrespectful, and just all around unpleasant.  So it's always a breath of fresh air to have people who are the exact opposite of that in the store.  Watching the two of them interact brought a smile to my heart.  

Anywhere is paradise; it's up to you. - Author Unknown

I think that somewhere along the way I forgot what this blog is about.  So here's a reminder to myself: It's about the small stuff.  It's unrealistic to expect everyday to have a big wow moment, but everyday does have a smiling heart moment.

Today, my moment was pretty low scale, and hopefully with the summer weather coming in, I'll have more moments like this in the upcoming months.  There was a lovely breeze and lots of sun outside, so I decide to read my book out there on the porch.  It was the perfect temperature and incredibly relaxing.  My heart was smiling the whole time.

What soap is to the body, laughter is to the soul. - Yiddish Proverb

I have two things that made my heart smile today.

After writing a long email to my lovely friend in Australia, I went to go get the mail.  To my surprise, I had a package in the mail coming from the same friend in Australia!  My heart immediately started smiling then, because who doesn't love getting international mail?  When I opened the package, my heart was smiling even harder when I saw that her husband had sent me a baseball cap and scarf from his favourite Aussie Rules Football team, the Hawks.  The scarf is already joining the other Aussie scarf I have for the Bombers.  I'm pretty sure I have more Australian sports memorabilia than I do Canadian!

This is so simple, but I have to post this anyway.  One of my cats, Gump, used to be an outdoor cat but is now an indoor cat.  The transition started a year ago and has not been easy.  So on nice days, he is normally sitting at the front or back door watching as the outside world goes on without him and waiting for the perfect opportunity to slip out.  Normally when he is doing this, it's impossible to get his attention.  But today, my heart smiled when I called his name, and not only did he come to me, but he ran to me.  He just seemed so happy to have someone call his name, it was almost like he was skipping!

A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes. - Hugh Downs

I recently took up jogging, which is pretty random for me.  I never really enjoyed running and only did as a means to an end, and never just for fun.  However, I got it in my head that I should be able to run for the Colon Cancer Walk/Run this year.  I trained and trained and trained, and was finally able to run 10km (you could do the 5 or 10km).  Today was the day that I got to put my training into practice, and although I wasn't able to run the 10km (was going to try, but the heat and humidity was absolutely unbearable and my cushy gym didn't allow for factoring that into my training), I was able to do the 5km.

So, suffice to say, my heart smiled when I past the finished line.  This time last year I wouldn't have even imagined that I'd be writing this right now and I certainly wasn't thinking of taking up jogging.  It's always a great feeling when you manage to accomplish something that you never thought you'd be able to accomplish.

And I already have plans to run 10km next year, regardless of the heat and humidity.